Top Slot Wheel is a classic casino money wheel with a small slot machine bolted on top. The wheel is the familiar one: 54 segments marked 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, a Joker and a Logo, each paying its own number. Before every spin, the top slot rolls first and may land on one of those symbols with a multiplier from ×2 to ×20. If the wheel then stops on the same symbol, the win on it is multiplied. That small extra turns one of the worst-value games on a casino floor into one of the better ones.
How to play
- Pick a chip and tap the symbols you want to back: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, Joker or Logo. Each bet is 10 to 1,000 credits, in tens, with a table maximum of 5,000 per spin.
- Spin. The top slot rolls first. It stops either on a symbol with a multiplier, such as “5 ×3”, or on a blank, which means no multiplier this spin.
- The wheel spins and stops on one segment. Bets on that symbol win.
- The multiplier applies if the top slot picked the same symbol the wheel stopped on. Your winnings are multiplied; the stake is returned as normal.
Example: 30 credits on 5, top slot shows “5 ×3”, wheel stops on 5. The win is 30 × 5 × 3 = 450, plus your 30 back.
The wheel
| Symbol | Segments (of 54) | Chance | Pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24 | 44.4% | 1 to 1 |
| 2 | 15 | 27.8% | 2 to 1 |
| 5 | 7 | 13.0% | 5 to 1 |
| 10 | 4 | 7.4% | 10 to 1 |
| 20 | 2 | 3.7% | 20 to 1 |
| Joker | 1 | 1.9% | 45 to 1 |
| Logo | 1 | 1.9% | 45 to 1 |
On its own, this wheel is expensive. The bet on 1 returns 88.9%, Joker and Logo about 85%, and 5 and 20 only 77.8%. That is how the plain Money Wheel works.
The top slot
The top slot is drawn independently of the wheel, before it spins:
| Top slot lands on | Chance |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5.7% |
| 2 | 8.1% |
| 5 | 10.0% |
| 10 | 7.0% |
| 20 | 8.8% |
| Joker | 4.6% |
| Logo | 4.6% |
| blank (no multiplier) | 51.2% |
When it lands on a symbol, the multiplier is ×2 half the time, ×3 a quarter of the time, ×5 in 15% of spins, ×10 in 7% and ×20 in 3%. The average multiplier is 3.8.
Look at the first table again. The symbols the wheel treats worst, 5 and 20, are exactly the ones the top slot picks most often. The 1, which is the wheel’s best bet, gets the top slot least. Those chances were set so that every bet ends up nearly equal.
Exact house edge
With the top slot included, each bet’s house edge is:
| Bet | House edge |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4.02% |
| 2 | 4.07% |
| 5 | 4.07% |
| 10 | 4.00% |
| 20 | 3.97% |
| Joker / Logo | 4.08% |
These are counted exactly from the 54 segments, the top slot weights and the multiplier table. The edge ranges only from 3.97% to 4.08%, so in practice every bet costs the same.
Strategy
Pick the symbol for the kind of game you want. Since the edge is flat, the only real choice is how often you want to win. The 1 lands nearly half the time and usually pays even money. The 20 lands once in 27 spins, but when the top slot lines up at ×20 it pays 400 to 1. A multiplied Joker or Logo can reach 900 to 1.
The 20 is now the best bet, by a whisker. At 3.97% it edges out the others. The difference is too small to notice over any normal session.
Spreading chips evens out results, not the edge. Covering several symbols makes a win likely on most spins, but each bet carries its own 4%.
Don’t follow the top slot. You place bets before the top slot rolls, so you can’t react to it. Its result doesn’t predict where the wheel stops either; the two are drawn separately.
Ignore streaks. The wheel has no memory, and neither does the top slot.
If you enjoy Top Slot Wheel, try Tower Climb or Treasure Hunt next.
